Are You Sure You Don’t Have Time?

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Larry Marshall

If you hang out in sketching circles, it’s very common to hear “I just haven’t had the time to draw.” I can never understand that, and dedicated sketchers will know what I mean when I say, “do you really think I buy that excuse? I don’t.” Now if you really don’t want to sketch, then don’t do it. But don’t kid yourself into thinking you don’t have time. There is nothing easier to fit into a hectic schedule than sketching.

How can I be so sure? Well, everyone has 24 hours in a day. We all need to eat, sleep and to varying degrees, work. I know that some work a lot. Ok, that means you have less time than I do but ‘no time’? There’s not one ‘couple minutes’ in your day when you could sketch?

Let me give you a couple examples of finding sketching time even when no time is set aside for sketching. I’ll start with my baseball passion. From April until October I burn up a couple hours a night watching the Blue Jays beat opposing teams. It’s a sickness, but I’ve got to do it. Others might watch hockey, football, cooking shows, or the latest dramatic series. People watch movies too. Here are the last couple pages from the sketchbook that I use when I do watch TV.

Some faces on TV

Some play with a ballpoint pen

quick details from memory

just some scribbles while watching baseball

Our lives are always what military guys refer to as ‘hurry up and wait.’ We rush to appointments and then sit around waiting for them to begin. I was in that situation just yesterday. I had to sign papers at my bank but I arrived at the bank 15 minutes before they opened. So, I walked down the street and popped into a small place and ordered a cup of coffee. While drinking coffee I drew these and got back to the bank by opening time. Are you sure you don’t have time to draw?

Quick sketches while waiting for bank to open

October Croquistes de Quebec Sketchcrawl

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’ve talked about walking along my river, sketching on my river, and seeing ducks and flowers on my river. It’s not really my river but the St. Charles River passes within a few minute walk of my house and the paths along its banks are a handy way for me to walk downtown, so I spend a lot of time on it.

Where Riviere Lairet exits into Parc Brebeuf

The Croquistes de Québec will hold their October sketchcrawl on my river, or rather, at Parc Cartier-Brébeuf, on Sunday, October 11. Parc Brebeuf is the confluence of the St. Charles and Lariat rivers; the Lariat runs mostly underground these days but is exposed to daylight just before it dumps into the St. Charles. The park is a famous place as Cartier, explorer extraordinaire for the French government, overwintered (1535) in his ship, back when the St. Charles River was more open to ship traffic. Now only kayaks and canoes ply its waters.

1st Avenue Bridge, just downstream from Parc Brebeuf

The sketchcrawl should be lots of fun so don’t be discouraged by our cooler weather. Forecasts are for decent sketching weather and Yvan has arranged for us to use the Maison Dorion-Coulombe, which is a beautiful and large house along the banks of the river if you decide it is too cold.

We’ll meet at the usual time (9:30AM) and sketch all day so bring a lunch, a sketchbook, and your favorite pointy device. Expect to be greeted with smiles. For more details, head over to the Croquistes de Québec web page. See you there.

Monument in Parc Brebeuf

Apple Picking Time In Quebec

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Because we have a large grocery store only a minute away, I can buy 10 lbs of apples in less than 10 minutes. It will cost me 99-cents a pound. Or, I can drive for half an hour, pick my own apples, pay 99-cents a pound, and drive home. It’ll only take me 90 minutes.

So, of course, once a year, we head out to pick apples. It’s fun. I don’t know what it is about apple picking, but clean air and greenery is always appealing to me.

The place we go is on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River and at the back of the orchard, just above the St. Lawrence, is the top of a church that was built in 1667. It existed on the site until 1720 so one assumes that this ‘steeple’ came off the church at that time. It’s been repaired with modern nails and bolts to hold it together and architecture in early Quebec wasn’t very fancy but I like it.

A Bad Sketching Day

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Does it ever happen to you? You agree to meet people for a sketching session and when you arrive you’re just not inspired to sketch? It doesn’t happen to me very often but when it does, the results aren’t pretty (grin).

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

And so it was when I agreed to meet five of my sketching buddies at the Latin Park, or whatever they call the place where there are a bunch of statues of famous South American folks. The smiling faces and upbeat attitudes that always come with sketchers were there and the day was gorgeous, as it’s still considerably warmer than it should be this time of year. But, for some reason, I just wasn’t in the mood to sketch.

I sat down to draw this guy, or this hunk of stone that looks like a guy. I worked faster than normal, mostly because of my disinterest, I think. The drawing result wasn’t horrible but I decided to try something different with the watercolor and made a mess of it.

From there I started sketching one of the most boring buildings in Quebec, the bus station, which is also an expansion to the train station, one of the most beautiful buildings in Quebec. I’d only just begun when everyone finished their first sketches, so we headed into the Dept. of Justice, the back of which looks out on the park, and we found toilets, coffee, and then returned to the park to eat lunch. That was fun and we talked about film festivals, the weather and sketching.

Everyone decided to do some more sketching so I went back to my bus station sketch. Why do we build such bland, soulless structures? As I look around Quebec it’s easy to see that there was a time when people cared about the esthetics of the world around them. Now it’s all just glass boxes full of cubicles. So sad.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

After I finished that sketch I did a couple quick sketches of statue pieces but it just wasn’t an inspiring day for me. Still, any sketching day beats a non-sketching day.

Relaxing At Mt Herman Cemetery

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

One of my favorite places in Quebec City is the Mt Herman Cemetery. It’s an old English cemetery that dates back at least to 1800 and is situated on a heavily forested, rolling hill landscape. People go to Mt Herman to read, meditate, walk around, have picnics, let their kids see a bit of nature. Of course, some come for a longer stay, which is the raison d’etre of a cemetery.

Me, I go there to sketch and to enjoy the quiet of the place, and that’s what I was doing about a week ago. During my time there I did a couple sketches. Nothing special, and not much to say about them except that both subjects were crafted during the 1860s. We do live our history here in Quebec.

Stillman & BIrn Beta (6x9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & BIrn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black